David E. Steitz
Headquarters, Washington, DC May 10, 1999
(Phone: 202/358-1730)
Jane Dodds
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/401-4044)
RELEASE: 99-58
NASA, USDA WILL BRING SPACE TECHNOLOGY DOWN TO EARTH
A new partnership between NASA and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) could result in updated maps of Yellowstone
National Park, a better understanding of wildfires and improved
management of California vineyards.
Under the partnership, NASA has selected 13 research
proposals that will apply remote-sensing data -- images of the
Earth taken by satellites -- to issues on the ground: forest
mapping, soil studies, wildfires, range management, flood-plain
drainage and crop monitoring.
"This new partnership between NASA and USDA demonstrates the
diverse and wide-ranging applications of NASA's Earth Science
research and its relevance to the American people," said Dr.
Ghassem Asrar, Associate Administrator of Earth Sciences, NASA
Headquarters, Washington, DC. "The Office of Earth Sciences is
eager to form new partnerships with other government agencies,
industry and public groups to expand America's use of our Earth
Science research."
"We in the Department of Agriculture, especially the
Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service are
very excited about partnering with NASA on these research
projects," said I. Miley Gonzalez, Under Secretary for Research,
Economics and Education. "We recognized that there were areas of
research where images from space combined with ground surveys can
greatly benefit our mapping efforts. We are looking forward to
these pilot projects and hope they may lead to future partnerships
between our organizations to explore land management and precision
agriculture topics."
The award value for the 13 projects, which involve 11
universities, 11 private companies, 17 federal agency facilities
and four state and local governments, is $7 million over three
years. NASA selected the 13 projects from 180 proposals.
Researchers will use a variety of public and private
spaceborne and aircraft-mounted Earth-observing instruments along
with ground observations in their studies.
For forestry studies, NASA, the U.S. Forest Service and
universities will use the recently launched Landsat 7 and other
satellites to create valuable new maps of Yellowstone and other
public lands.
Satellite imagery also can provide researchers at the Forest
Service and universities with maps of vegetation in areas prone to
wildfires -- firefighters can determine which types of plants are
more likely to fuel wildfires and better predict what paths such
fires may take.
Using airplanes and spacecraft that observe characteristics
of grape vines invisible to the naked eye, researchers can "see"
when vines are ill, allowing vintners to act before many vines are
lost to disease. This research will allow America's billion-
dollar wine industry to manage its vineyards more cost-
effectively.
Additional information on the research projects, including
the names of the universities, companies and federal facilities
involved, can be found on the Internet at:
http://earth.nasa.gov/nra/archive/nra98oes09/winners.html
The partnership between the space program and USDA is part of
NASA's Earth Science enterprise, a coordinated research program
that studies the Earth's land, oceans, ice, atmosphere and life as
a total science system. The initiative is part of an aggressive
new strategy devoted to significantly increasing the application
of NASA remote sensing data, information, science and technologies
to societal needs, ensuring maximum return on taxpayer
investments.
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